After departing the Chicago Fire towards the tail end of last season, Frank Yallop has found himself a new gig.

On Wednesday, Yallop was named head coach and president of soccer operations for USL side Arizona United SC. His contract is for three years.

“Entering our third season of play, we wanted to show our fans and our players that we were committed to putting a winning and championship product on the field, and we couldn’t think of a better way to communicate it than hiring someone like Frank Yallop,” Arizona United SC co-chairmen Kyle Eng and Brett Johnson said in a release. “Frank’s experience and success speaks for itself and he’ll immediately raise the bar and put the rest of the league on notice that Arizona United SC is serious about being the best club in USL.”

Yallop, who spent 13 combined years as a coach in MLS, won two MLS Cup titles and was also honored as MLS Coach of the Year twice during his tenure.

Most of his successes came with the San Jose Earthquakes, a franchise he won both MLS Cup titles with and also the Supporters’ Shield almost a decade later. He also coached the LA Galaxy and, most recently, the Fire.

Yallop, who represented Canada at the international level as a player, also coached the national team in between coaching stints with the Earthquakes and the Galaxy.

What do you think of Yallop’s decision to coach Arizona United? Think he will do well in the USL?

Recent News

Comments

12 comments

Dace

With as many ambitious non-MLS teams as there are in the country, I think the pro-rel debate is going to keep coming back more and more frequently until USSoccer takes a stance on it one way or the other.

Never say never, if/when soccer becomes the 2nd/3rd most attended/watched sport and we’ve got more good teams than the NFL does, it’ll make sense. Make the NASL/USL two regional halves of the second division with playoffs to determine who actually gets promoted. 4 spots total, winner of each league and winner of a 4 team playoff from each league gets promoted, relegation teams are assigned to their respective regions, 2 to each.

LoL. Pretty indicative of the phenomenon that each of us sees the world/ everything through the lens of our own bias when the first thought that occurs with the hiring of Frank Yallop by a USL team is that it signals impending promotion/relegation. Watch this… I have my own: I was thinking something along the lines of how far his career has fallen.

I’m not trying to say that this move is paving the way for pro/rel, just that a lot of the notable non-MLS teams have a lot of ambition and at some point they’re going to outgrow their second tier leagues and want some kind of ability to take their teams to the next level. Unless NASL starts competing directly with MLS there will be no place for them to grow and you’re going to start seeing non-MLS owners starting to clamor for it.

I agree with you….. to an extent. There are ambitious owners outside MLS which I see as nothing but positive. I was just ribbing you about this story in particular bringing up that point. More than an aggressive owner grabbing FY from the wanting clutches of the top league… Yallop turned to USL because he had likely had no options elsewhere. As well, rather than looking for a window for its club into Top Flight competition, USL appears to be working at becoming MLS’s development league/B-sides. As for NASL, it’s most spendy/ ambitious owners (and/or those in USL namely Sacremento) seem more intent on buying into MLS expansion to the tune of 100 million rather than waiting for pro/rel which realistically is a looooong way from happening.That should tell you something.

Week 1 of the 2018 USL season provided fans with plenty of great matchups and show-stopping goals. First, New York Red Bulls II came from behind to see off Toronto FC II to win their opening game of the (…)